On May 1, students from all areas of Miami Dade County attended the 2008 Student Journalism Forum funded by the Office of Public Relations where well known local journalists were present to enlighten students about their future careers in journalism. Also there to speak about the importance of careers was Miami-Dade Superintendent Dr.Rudolph F. Crew.

The morning began with school district spokesman John Shuster welcoming the students to the forum and introducing the three special guest panelists.

Michael Putney, news reporter for channel 10 was the first panelist who went in-depth into how journalism is not a career for people who are looking for money or for celebrity status.

“If you want to be a television star, try out for ‘American Idol’ or ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ If journalism is really what you want to do, forget about stardom,” he said.

He also spoke about the hardships that he and many others encountered.

“If you’re lucky and work hard, you will get a job and be told you have to work the overnight shift for around $25,000 a year. Whether you want to be a print reporter or a broadcaster, you are going to have to start in the boonies.”

Following Putney was Ana Cuervo, reporter for Channel 51, also known as Telemundo. Cuervo stressed the importance of bilingualism and how it got her to her big break.

“It’s what kept me from doing what Michael described,” she said.

Cuervo explained how in the 90’s, Spanish stations were not considered a big part of local television.

“Right now, the truth is that we are competing right up there with the English stations.”

In addition to Cuervo’s bilingual advantage, her big break came through the chaos of Hurricane Andrew.

“When Hurricane Andrew came along, it was the third day in when there were no reporters left to send and they were like ‘Ok, who can go?’ and I said ‘I’ll go! I’ll go!’ and that’s when I got my first chance on the air,” she said.

After Cuervo gave her words of wisdom, it was Robert Steinback’s turn to inspire and educate the students. Steinback is an opinion writer for the Miami Herald and had a lot of valuable information to share about the history of the newspaper and about the change taking place with the addition of the Internet.

“The Internet has changed everything. It’s caused a lot of newspapers to close, to merge, and to cut back,” he said.

Steinback also had a lot of advice to give on writing opinion pieces including “don’t be condescending to your audience” and “always assume you won’t change someone’s opinion.”

Before the forum came to a close, it was the superintendent’s turn to speak about the importance of careers. At the beginning of his career quest, Dr. Crew wanted to become a musician until he realized he couldn’t even “play the radio” and then decided to become a pro athlete.

“I then realized that everyone including the water boy was bigger than me,” he said.

He went to college for four year to study economics when he later realized he wanted to teach children.

The struggle he went through to make a decision is the reason why Dr. Crew feels so strongly about the topic of careers.

Dr. Crew has a published a book titled ‘Only Connect: The Way to Save Our Schools.’ It has also been rumored that if Barack Obama wins the presidency, Dr. Crew will be called to step in as the Secretary of Education in the White House.

As his speech came to a close it was time to let the students from the audience ask questions and before the sentence was even finished, students from all sides of the room sprinted across the auditorium to reach the microphone including two of our own, junior Melissa Caceres and senior Ayana Flewellen.

Even among book deals and White House rumors, not one question pertained to any of it. Instead, students persisted on asking about budget cuts and financial deficits for public education.

When asked by a student if he had ever considered using money from his bonuses and giving it to the public schools system, Dr. Crew answered “No actually I haven’t.”

He further went on to explain how his salary is not an issue but rather the national education system as a whole is to blame. He also clarified a lot of budget issues including the fact that Florida is in a recession and even more cuts will be made in the following years.



All in all, the journalism forum was a good experience that many students enjoyed.

“I’m really glad I came to the forum because not only did I learn about journalism through experienced people in the field but I was also informed about budget cuts in local schools and education programs,” said Flewellen, editor-in-chief of The Viper Vibe.